The Strand

We have been island hopping!  The southern part of Thailand seems to be where everything stops working.  I sweat through the 55 sunblock, the internet is down for "island-wide maintenance" and the weather forecaster puts up 50-50 odds - just to be on the safe side.

Arrival in Ao Nang was auspicious as Agoda's attempt to access our accommodation was abruptly aborted.  A few 50 baht phone calls later we were upgraded to a grand suite three doors down, complete with a four-storey/128-step hike to the pinnacle of LegoLand tower and enough cracked tiles in the room to make me concerned about building collapse.  Ao Nang's appeal was apparent however, (no more alliteration exercises, I promise) as soon as we rolled down to the shore.  Karst-secluded beaches, extremely spicy soup, taco Tuesdays and everything else a tourist might need to be relieved of their currency.

A quick boat trip took us to Ko Lanta, which was a little less intense in terms of the karsts and tourist traps, but still bountiful in terms of beaches, bars and Sang Som soda sets (Hissers, to coin a phrase - not excusing the alliteration whatsoever).  We managed to use up some horseshoe points at the Pada Hotel on Lanta after coming back to the room in time to scare a would-be thief back out the window!  The hotel staff seemed to know exactly who the thief was, which made me a little more confident in my decision not to pursue a barefoot chase.  The proximity to 7-11, however, was excellent; this may have been a factor in Liz breaking a tooth spontaneously on the same evening!  (Note from Liz: I was chewing gum!)  This craziness pretty much used up our 15-day visas in Thailand, save for a brief visit with our friends Shawn and Eva, so it was time to hop once more to Langkawi, Malaysia.

Even the Soi-Dogs are cuter in southern Thailand!

Endless skies...

SuperFAST jellyfish.

Dave